


Even Green Can Lose its Colour

by adangerousbond



Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: Gen, Season 4 Finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-07-25 12:58:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16198022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adangerousbond/pseuds/adangerousbond
Summary: My take after the S4 finale





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me after the season finale and kinda just stuck with me! Only started watching Killjoys this season, so still working out the show/characters – hopefully I haven't butchered it too much. I wrote this chapter and the first half of the next in an afternoon, so haven't had a chance to properly spell check it yet.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing!

She smiled at the stranger as he entered the bar, a sense of familiarity creeping through her mind that she couldn't quite place. He shared some similarities with her husband, so she put it down to that, but a small part of her couldn't shake the feeling that she was staring at family.

"D'avin." He introduced himself warmly, stopping short of her to watch her reaction.

"Yala." She told him, the name sounding as foreign on her tongue as it did when Johnny had said it earlier.

"Have you seen this kid around?" He asked, handing her the PDD he was carrying with him.

The image of the child made her pause once more, the boy, no more than 15, could have been a perfect mix of herself and the man in front of her. If the man had picked up on this he didn't let on, instead choosing to continue to watch her reaction in a manner that seemed off to her.

"No, never seen him." She answered after a moment, something inside her wanting to tell the man in front of her that he'll never find the child here.

"That seems to be the party line around here, but this is where my intel says he should be." The stranger going by the name D'avin sighed as he took the PDD back.

"Maybe your intel is wrong?" She responded politely, moving back towards the bar with no real sense of purpose.

"Maybe. Thanks for your time." He told her as he turned to leave, a tone of distrust around him that she knew just wasn't right.

She poured a drink for herself the moment the door shut behind him, something was right about the whole morning, something she just couldn't place. She felt a strange connection to a stranger, as if he was as much family as the man she had woken up next to that morning and that wasn't like her.

"Yala isn't like that." She spoke out loud, her name still not following out as it should. Then what am I like she wondered, she knew who she was today but she couldn't make a clear picture of who she was yesterday, let alone a year ago.

Taking a fourth and then a fifth shot of Hokk, she could feel the alcohol hitting her head, but she didn't feel in through her body. It was as if she was drinking a memory of alcohol not the actual thing. Her last thought stayed in her mind as if it was important, like it was a task she was not supposed to forget but for some reason she couldn't understand its importance.

Later that night, with Johnny back, she watched him work and talk with their apparent friends, hoping he would somehow jog some sense into her brain. But with every drink served and every new friend, she just felt more and more on edge. People came and went as if it was predetermined but without the purpose they should have.

The next morning felt the same as the last, except she felt as tired as when she went to sleep. She made sure her husband had his lunch as he joined his friend for their day job, she got the bar ready and she tried to feel drunk. By the third day of slight differences but basically the same, she nearly threw a bottle at a patron when they tried to slip out the back without paying, for the third day in a row.

The confusion and concern on Johnny's face bugged her even more, his eyes felt off to her and not understanding why was what was driving her mad. Making an excuse that she was tired, she left for bed early, taking a bottle of Hokk with her to try and help actually get some sleep.

Lying in bed, she tried to sleep but there was a deep sense of fear and sadness seeded in anger, that for the life of her, she couldn't place. She had no memories to match the feelings, but they were there, stronger than the happiness she was supposed to be feeling, so strong that they were acting almost as a warning.

Once again, she woke tiredly, as if she had not slept at all. She voiced her request for extra sleep before the words registered in her mind, the same words she had said every day earlier. The voice in her head that had been quietly brewing was starting to get louder but everything around her did not change.

After waving her husband once off again, she felt a tinge of guilt, one thing she was sure of was that she loved the man like a brother, not like a lover. Staring out the bar's window she watched as the westerly's general population went about their same day to day duties, so similar that she could nearly guess their next moves.

Walking into the market, a chill ran down her spine, like everything else the past week she couldn't place it but she knew to trust it. She smiled at a vendor as she stopped to look at their produce, the pause giving her the chance to see a man at the next store start to draw a knife on the vendor next door.

"Hey!" She yelled at the man, her tone more deadly than she expected, drawing the thief's attention towards her.

The thief lunged at her with the knife, she fought back, instincts she didn't understand kicking in quicker than her body could keep up. She managed to disarm the man, but with her instincts still driving her, she kept with fight, taking each punch easier than she should have.

In a haze of anger, she launched at the man, snapping his neck in a move so quick that it startled even herself, dropping the body as if it burned her. The company guard rushing towards her looked between her and the man on the ground a few times before walking forward with cuffs.

Lying in the jail cell, an old memory cut through her ringing head, this was far from her first time in a cell but the memory only hurt her head more. Closing her eyes, she replayed the fight in her mind but the face kept changing and eventually the manner of death started altering, the new memories feeling more real than the one she had just formed.

Soon enough, the door opened to a couple of guards and Johnny, the later not looking as confused as he should, but almost as if he was annoyed. She followed them out of the jail, realising not saying anything was the better course to follow.

"Why did they let me go?" she asked once they were on the street home, her wounds stinging as she spoke, the pain more an annoyance than an actual pain.

"The witnesses came forward and explained that happened." Johnny spoke nonchalantly, as if he wasn't walking his bruised and murdering wife home.

She made eye contact with the beggar across from their home and his gaze hardened as memories of him leading her into war flashed across her mind.

"Go get yourself cleaned up." Johnny told her as he handed her a first aid kit from behind the bar.

Walking back down the stairs, the sound of John and the stranger from the other day laughing together, she paused for a moment to take the sounds in. The easy conversation and the laughter coming from the boys downstairs making her feel more herself than she had throughout the past week.

The stranger smiled at her as she entered the room, a glint of teasing still evident in his eyes from whatever he had been saying to her husband. An image of them in bed together, with him holding himself on top of her joking about her royalty status flew into her mind, freezing her in her spot.

"Yala! Be a darl and grab D'av and I fresh drinks." Johnny asked with a light-heartedness she couldn't recall hearing.

"Your wife is hot." D'avin exclaimed loudly, smirking at the man next to him.

She placed the bottles on their table, her eyes flying to the door where a bunch of people were piling in. She recognised the man leading them in as Johnny's work mate, but the one following in next forcing another memory into the forefront of her mind.

"Pree!" She greeted, who she had worked out was a former friend, her tone confusing the man next to her and the man walking through the door.

"Who's this?" Johnny's inquisitive smirk watching her closely as he rose.

She watched as he blinked and the moment his eyes opened she knew he was not Johnny anymore, a darkness fell over his face as he shook his head at her.

"All you had to do was go about your life." The man in front of her said, picking up a piece of wire from behind the bar, he moved around the bar slicing the patrons necks quicker than they had the chance to move, shots ringing out for the few that did attempt to run.

She pleaded with the man she knew to be her best friend, she had no idea what had been going on the past week, but she knew the people in this room were her people and watching them die was the first real pain she had felt in this place.

The shot sounded through the room, but instead of death, she awoke back in the same room as every other day. Each time it ended the same, all her friends and family being killed and each time she woke up at the start all over again instead of dying. By the third reboot, Dutch had all of her real memories back, she knew that she was trapped in the lady's morbid game.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

D'avin and Johnny stood impatiently at the hanger entrance, waiting for the new arrival to push through the doors at put their minds at ease. The air was thick with fear and apprehension that was coming to a head after days of not knowing the fate of their third team member.

To anyone, it would have been easy to mistake the woman stepping towards them for the last member of team awesome force, but to the two that knew her better than anyone in the world, the woman in front of them was the wrong one.

"Aneela?" D'avin asked in a questioning tone, not as confirmation but as a question to why and how she was here.

"Can we talk somewhere more privately, with Dutch?" Aneela asked in her usual calm tone, her eyes hardening when the two men shared a sideways glance, but following none the less as they directed her away.

Turin was waiting for them, his face blank as the three of them entered the room with the previously green bath. He eyed their old enemy closely, still not sure if he believed she was on their side.

"Where's Dutch?" D'avin demanded, unable to hide the worry.

"What do you mean? What happened to the lady?" Aneela questioned the group as she stared at the water in the tub.

"You pulled her back in, so why is she not with you?" Johnny started rambling, his eyes accusing the women across from him.

"The four of us left the green, only you didn't come out the other side. Dutch touched the water and you pulled her back in." D'avin explained further.

"The lady knocked me out, last I saw she was going with you three to get out." Aneela told her side of what happened, giving them a moment for the words to sink in. "I didn't leave with you."

"Wait so it was the lady with us not you? How did we get out without you?" Johnny asked, suddenly not only worried for his best friend, but also for their war.

"Dutch must have gotten you out, but she mustn't have been able to get the lady out too, so she dragged her back in, probably hoping between Dutch and I we would be able to get her out." She started explaining, more to herself than to the men in the room.

"How did you get out then?" Turin accused, crossing his arms as he tried to take all the information in, trying to work out his next move in the war.

"With Khlyen's help, with a trick he had taught me back on Arkyn, which is why I ended up back there." Aneela rushed over what she had done, knowing full well none of them would understand it fully.

"So you came out on Arkyn and hailed a ride from us?" Turin grumbled.

"What about Dutch? The lady has her all alone now." D'avin questioned, the concern evident in his tone, his end statement causing a silence to settle on the room.

"I don't know. The green is dead now, I can't go through it." Aneela answered quietly, a hint of emotion clouding her words.

"But you got out, so she can too?" D'avin pushed further, trying to work out his next steps.

"I don't know, it was still dying when I got out." The woman across from him gave more honestly in her uncertainty than she had been with any of them.

"We have to get her out." Johnny back up his brother and his partner, the thought of leaving the latter on her own with their enemy made him want to punch the lookalike in front of him.

"Dutch is on her own. We have bigger issues to deal with here." Turin stated, raising his voice to the room.

"We can't just leave her in there." D'avin fought back.

"Anything we do could risk letting the lady out, and Dutch wouldn't want that." Aneela tried to reason with the brothers in front of her.

"She was planning on dying to kill Aneela, as much as I don't want to, this is what Dutch would want." Johnny conceded, knowing Dutch would prefer it this way.

"She won't die, the lady will torture her. Remember how she was last time?!" D'avin fired back, he had begrudgingly accepted her suicide mission once, but there was only so many of those he could back her on.

"She understands the green better now, she has a better chance of getting out." Aneela quietly stated, a small touch of compassion to her tone.

"And we still need to work out how to fix our friends, the war isn't over yet General." Turin said, putting an end to the discussion at hand.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time the resets had started in the double digits, Dutch had started losing count. She tried fighting to begin with, but eventually she let the story play out, her begging not to shoot, turning into her begging to shoot, until she was simply silent.

She opened her eyes with a sigh, quickly sitting up alert at the change of surroundings, the room in the stone building that had haunted her dreams since her first visit to the green filtered into her vision. The lady in the skin of Khlyen made her way into Dutch's vision.

"What, grew bored of that play did you?" She spat at the lady.

"You remember everything again, I thought it was time we had a chat." The lady shrugged uncaringly.

"So what was the point, to drive me mad?" Dutch growled, ignoring the fact that it was near driving her mad.

"I just wanted you to know what I can do and what I will do to your friends once I am out." Khlyens voice laughed back at her.

"Haven't you realised, you're never getting out." Dutch responded, actually believing the words she was firing.

"If I never get out, neither will you little flea." The lady stated with the same certainty.

"That's okay with me." She had been prepared to give her life for the cause many times already; why should that change now.

"You say that now, but give me more time." An eagerness to the words, cutting deeper than the words themselves.

"Do you want to know how your real friends in Old Town are?" The lady asked after a while, not enjoying the silence.

"What did you do to them?" Dutch fired up at the question, trying to lunge at the being in front of her but she didn't have the strength to fight against her.

"Oh, just freed them from their memories for a while." The lady smirked, her enjoyment visible.

"Why?" She demanded, the anger flaring up deep inside of her.

"I'm giving them a taste of freedom, without any of those pesky reminders of their pasts." The lady explained with a psychotic tone. "Don't worry, the effects usually wear off after about a month, then they get all their memories, new and old."

"Do you know what your down fall is?" Dutch stated after a while, knowing she had to be smarter about picking her fights.

"Enlighten me, little flea." Khlyens voice taunted her.

"You get all parts of the memory, physical and emotional, but you only understand the physical, you're not human enough to understand the emotional side." Dutch taunted right back.

"That's not my downfall; that is what makes me better." The lady watched her with amusement; she really did enjoy having a play toy.

"Maybe, but it doesn't make you stronger." Dutch stated, knowing her welcome was wearing thin.

The next time she woke, the story was similar but this time she was the monster getting hunted, she was alone, but where the lady thought she was driving her mad, she was actually giving her an advantage. It gave her time to formulate her plan, to start getting ready, hiding out, she practiced manipulating the green, manipulating the bounds of the lady's reach.

Every time she was found, and every time she was killed by her friends, her teammates, but each time the story reset her self-taught skills got stronger, her planned seemed more feasible. She had no real idea if her plan would work, but it was the only one that she had, if it didn't, she had no idea what would happen, so she was choosing not to consider that option.

The next time the lady brought her in for one of their chats she was as ready as she would ever be. She kept her mind clear and set to the first part of her plan, a skill that Khlyen taught her, so it was only fitting that the lady was still in his skin.

"I want to tell you a story now" Dutch spoke evenly.

"This shall be interesting, little flea." The lady responded, her amusement over riding whatever her reason for bringing them together once again.

She weaved the story through the ladies mind, a story of death, betrayal, fear and heart wrenching pain; emotion would in fact be the ladies downfall, she was hoping.

In the pauses of the story, she blocked her mind from the lady and silently collected the spore that would kill the green once and for all, inside and out.

Nearing the end of her story, she knew it was time, the lady was bombarded with the story, learning and gathering as much information from it as she could to use against her human enemies.

Dutch closed her eyes, drawing in every ounce of training and strength she had to block the lady out and visualise the flowing green pool from her memory mother's cave in front of her, she flicked her hand through the green, remembering the feel of the silky substance. Bringing a handful to her mouth, she kept her eyes shut and pushed the doubt away; this was the only plan she had and it had to work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been in a writing mood recently but never for the same story! I was going to do another one-shot but thought seeing's how I had half of this written out already I should finish the chapter off. I have at least one more chapter planned for this story too, I haven't had a real sort of plan for it but we'll see how it goes!
> 
> Thank-you all for the support so far with this story! I appreciate it greatly.
> 
> Enjoy!

Swallowing the liquid, she placed her hand back into the green and willed it to take her back to the other side. Feeling the now familiar pull of travelling through the green, brought a sense of hope to her, replaced by a sharp stab of fear as she felt the anger of the lady from behind her.

Falling to the ground, Dutch forced herself to open her eyes, her hands still tightly gripping the container with the spore. Relief flooded through her as she opened her eyes quickly, ripping the band aide off as sorts, and took in the rocky cave around her, without any hint of the hazy green around her.

"How did you get here?" The voice of the woman who technically was her mother broke her trance, the guards at the door watching her with interest, clearly having woken the sleeping ruler when they had entered the chamber to protect their queen from the commotion.

Dutch's glance towards the pool now only containing water answering the question, her quiet confusion telling everyone around that not only did she not quite know how her path had ended here, but also that the location was a surprise to her as well.

"Where's Aneela?" The older woman asked with compassion, it all made little sense to her, but the younger woman in front of her was the spitting image of the daughter she had loved for so long.

"She must be out, she wasn't in the green." Dutch spoke, her voice sounding as tired as she felt.

"Why is it water now?" Yalena questioned, noticing the change in the pool as she approached it cautiously.

"Because of this, we used it from the inside." Dutch stated, toying with the spore container that she had produced once again in the green and successfully brought out with her, just when she had started to learn how to control the green; she was about to destroy it for once and for all. "Now I think we need to use it from the outside too."

"Can I do the honours?" Her mother requested, the years that she had spent in anger and sorrow due to the liquid in front of her, evident in every action she did, every word she spoke; it was only fitting that she be the one to end it, after all she had kept her post to do that very thing for longer than she could even recall these days.

Dutch handed the spore to the older woman, as she watched her pour it from its prison, the air around them heavy with apprehension and relief as the water turned to black and then down to a dust as the spore mixed with it. The dust sat unassuming across the stone, the power it had once held appearing to be gone, but neither of them could be certain of that fact and neither could be sure of what damage it had already done or the damage that might be caused by ending it.

"I need to get to my people." Dutch broke the silence, turning away from the pool and pushing aside her questions, knowing that the only chance for answers would start back with her team.

"Of course, I will organise a ship to take you." Yalena agreed instantly, she might have completed her main mission for the galaxy, but she was still wanting to help her family in any way she could.

"Thank-you." Her daughter and almost grand-daughter stated politely, in some ways she reminded her so much of Aneela and in other ways she was the complete opposite.

"When you see her, can you tell her I would love a visit?" She requested, hoping that the other would accept and the next time she would be woken it would be for her other daughter.

"Of course." Dutch agreed quickly, it was the least she could do for the promise of safe passage back to her team.

\--------------------------------

She sat on the couch of the ship, the humming of the ship calming her slightly as they made their way through the planets protective shield, the fake black hole flashing back up the moment they were far away enough to miss its pull. A little while into the trip her quiet trance was broken as her pilot made his way over to her.

"You look terrible, are you sure we shouldn't stop at a planet with a doctor on the way?" A man dressed the same as the protector she had met on Utopia approached her cautiously.

"No, I need to get back home." Dutch answered assuredly, she didn't have time to worry about herself and knew that Lucy would probably be better equipped than any of the doctors along the way anyway.

"Very well, at least try to eat something." The protector instructed, placing some fruit on the table in front of her, the kindness from one of Khylen's highly trained assassins throwing her for a moment.

Thanking him, she waited until her left to try to eat a little, but the moment she swallowed, she felt like throwing it back up as it mixed with the green that she had drunk to get out, the liquid and the solid appearing not to be a fan of each other. She had taken a while to not feel sick after her last trip, but this time had been worse, she had gone in and came out a different way and she couldn't help but wonder if that made things worse for herself, not that it mattered if it meant they had finally won.

\----------------------------

"Stop approaching or we will have to take defensive action." Turin yelled through the speaker, his annoyance almost visible through his tone, as the loud sound woke Dutch from the light sleep she had fallen into, making her way into the cockpit, surprised to see they were staring down the Amarda.

"I have a package I have been instructed to deliver. I have disengaged my weapons systems." The protector responded, his tone flat and unbothered.

"You do not have permission to dock, please turn away." Turin requested, giving them little option to do anything else, his voice echoing through the ship.

"Well give me permission." The protector calmly requested, shaking his head when she made a move to respond instead.

"Oh, because you asked so nicely, no." Her boss growled back, and she could imagine his face angry and confused at the situation at hand.

"Let me speak to him." She asked, gaining a glare in response, she understood that he had to ensure it wasn't a trap and he didn't want to let them know she was on board until he knew it was safe, but it still annoyed her.

"I just need to dock to deliver this package and I will be on my way." The man in front of her explained.

"And let me guess the package is a weapon?" Turin laughed, she knew his team- her team- would be working on trying to gain access to the ship to work out their intentions, but from the system she could see around her, she also knew that wouldn't happen any time soon.

"Let me talk to your leader." The protector tried from a different angle, his people skills clearly as lacking as Turin's.

"You already are." Turin's gruff voice fired back, his patience wearing thin.

"Well you can give me the permission to dock then." His tone making it clear that he already knew he was talking to the top of the chain and that he didn't care.

"We have been over this." The answer that came back sounding as mocking as the demand.

"Ask for a white blade." She instructed her pilot, hoping that it would interest her team enough to agree.

"I'm invoking a white blade." He stated, accepting her plan without any further questions.

"A what?" Turin asked, it was unclear to her if he actually didn't know what it was or if the request had simply thrown him.

"What did you say?" Johnny's voice piped up, making her smile at hearing her best friends voice, knowing that at least he was alive.

"I'm invoking a white blade," the protector stated, "Give me 5 minutes with you and I promise to stick to the terms of a white blade."

"Give us a minute." Johnny said, cutting the transmission off their end.

"What in the bloody hells is a white blade." Turin grumbled, turning to his team that had interrupted him, the whole situation confusing him, they hadn't had another ship even come near them in days, let alone one come up to them.

"Dutch did it once with another assassin, it's like a sit down where each side can't kill the other." D'avin explained briefly, evident that they didn't get the whole run down but had had enough to get the concept.

"And do they stick to the rules?" Turin asked, brows raised at the way the two men next to him suddenly looked sideways at each other, giving him his answer. "Exactly."

"That was different, Dutch pushed him too far, she said it's the one thing assassin's respect." Johnny reasoned, curious about what the man on the ship wanted and wanting to believe that it might be something of help to them.

"Which only proves at the very least, he's an assassin, is that really someone we should be inviting onto our ship." Turin questioned, knowing it was a valid argument, especially with everything that had been going on the last few weeks.

"Let him dock." Aneela spoke up, alerting them to her presence in the room, her statement drawing the attention from everyone in the room.

"Why?" Turin asked tiredly, quickly realising that he was getting out numbered on his wish to turn the ship away.

"He's a protector." She stated in an even tone, even though she wasn't sure that the room even knew what that was.

"He works for your mother?" Johnny questioned, drawing weird looks all round at his knowledge of the term, with even Aneela surprised.

"We have to let him dock, he could have something important to tell us, mother might have had something to do with the change in the green." She reasoned, knowing her statement would be enough to convince even Turin.

\------------------------

They stood in a line at the end of the docking station, awaiting the man that claimed he was no threat, watching as the man exited slowly, his white blade above his head almost mockingly as he walked towards them.

"What is your package?" Turin asked, staring the man down as he came to a stop a few metres off their location, the lack of anything with him putting them all on edge.

"I'll get it, I just had to make sure you wouldn't shoot me first." He stated, placing the blade down on the floor before heading back in.

"Is he for real?" Turin questioned after a couple minutes, his day seemed to just be getting worse and worse.

"Whatever it is, it must be important." Aneela stated calmly.

They head the two pairs of footsteps before they saw them, guns trained on them instantly, the fact that either his package was a person or he had gotten back up concerning them all even more.

"Don't shoot." The protector stated, his body turned to protect his companion and his hand raised in front of them.

"They wouldn't dare." Dutch spoke affectionately, her boys rushing to her side the moment she came in view. Her arms going around both of them, grinning for the first time in what felt like forever, as the three of them clung to each other.

"Thank-you." Johnny said to the man as he stepped away, his hand out to shake the strangers hand.

"Simply doing my job, once you all finally let me." He spoke as evenly as he had the entire showdown.

"Come on, lets get you fueled up and ready to get on your way again." Turin spoke politely, more trusting than before but still wanting the stranger off his ship.

Da'vin supported Dutch as he led her away from the small group, wanting to get her to Lucy and checked out as soon as he could, the lack of complaint from her not surprising him as he took in her fatigued and weakened state, reminding him of when she had come out of the green the first time, only this time she was at least still awake.

Directing her onto Lucy and into her room, he helped lower her onto her bed, bending down in front of her as she sat quietly.

"Are you okay?" He questioned her softly, knowing that Lucy would have started monitoring her vitals and clocking her injuries the moment they got on the ship.

"Not sure." She answered honestly, her defeated eyes meeting his.

"We thought, I thought I would never see you again." He voiced the fear he had held onto since the last time he had saw her, gripping her hands tightly between his.

"This is real, right?" She asked, a lone tear running down her cheek. The question itself at first glance could have seemed out of excitement but the terror in the back of her eyes and the quiet tone nearly broke him, she actually wasn't fully convinced.

"Yes." He stated firmly, cupping her face with his hands.

"I'm not really sure I care anymore." Her statement threw him, he was prepared for her to not believe him, to not know how to know, but the fact she had passed the point so far that she didn't push to know; that was unexpected and broke his heart to even start to think about what the lady had done to her.

"This is real, she doesn't have you anymore." He tried to convince her, thinking for a moment, he lent forward, kissing her lightly, trying to prove his point. "You've kissed me in the green and out, which one did that feel like?"

Instead of a response, she wrapped her arms around him, hiding her face in his neck. The lady had stolen nearly all of her strength, for the time being she needed to borrow some from her family, as much of it as she could get.

"How long was I in there?" she asked, drawing back, seemingly believing that it was real, or at least not caring if it wasn't.

"Nearly two weeks." He responded casually, as if he didn't know the exact amount of time she had been missing, right down to the minute, but her fear and pain outweighed his at the moment.

"Felt like longer." Her words holding more weight than she had meant, she had tried to keep track of time, but the lady hadn't let her and by the end, it had felt like eternity.

"Do you want a shower or food?" His attention turning back to her well being as Lucy interrupted with an update on her vitals.

"Shower, definitely." She stated, a small hint of a smile as she entertained the thought of a real shower.

"Do you need any help?" He asked sincerely, concerned about her ability to stand let alone shower on her own.

"I'll be fine, Lucy will be looking out for me, won't ya girl?" Dutch responded, glancing upwards to her ship.

"Of course, Dutch." Lucy's monotone voice making her feel more at home.

"Okay, we will all be in the kitchen if you need anything." He told her as he got up to go find the others.

\--------------------------

"How is she?" Johnny and Aneela asked the moment he entered the kitchen, their concern evident.

"Pretty messed up, I'm not even sure she's convinced this is real." He explained as he poured himself a drink, needing it more than he had all week, this time though for a different reason.

"The lady would have spent every moment torturing her and time is different in the green. She could have done anything to her." Aneela stated, fear and admiration for her creation evident in her tone.

"What do we do now?" Johnny asked, thankful that one of their issues was much more manageable now, allowing them the chance to move onto the other array of problems they had, with less of a threat of their team members possible death.

"Now we go deal with the issue in Old Town." D'avin agreed, their other friends needed them now more than ever and they had been telling themselves that they were working on the issue when really they had been more focused on Dutch.

"And find Delle Seyah and the child." Aneela stated, her family's safety the only thing that she had left that she really cared about, she had been pushing to find them daily but the knowledge that they were safe had been enough to subdue her, but not that Dutch was back she had no real reason to stay.

"We'll keep trying to hold the peace from here." Turin informed the group as he walked into their impromptu meeting. "But do you have any idea what to do about Old Town?"

"As far as Lucy and I can tell, whatever they have been infected with is suppressing their memories, as well as their inhibitions. It must be some sort of neural blocker, so we should be able to work out a way to reverse its effects." Johnny started on about what he had found out from his external scans of the planet that harbored their friends.

"The lady told me it would wear off." Dutch spoke up, drawing everyone's attention as she leant against the door frame to the kitchen. Wearing one of D'avin's shirts and a pair of shorts nearly hidden under the shirts length, she looked smaller and lessen frightening than usual, especially with the myriad of bruises and cuts across her body.

"She told you about what she did to Old Town?" Johnny asked, handing her a glass of Hokk as he gave her another quick hug, grateful that his best friend was alive.

"I thought she was just trying to mess with me, but she said that the loss of memory was temporary and that they will keep their old memories and new together, I think that was where she got the enjoyment from it, the aftermath." Dutch explained to them, sitting at the table as she nursed the glass without actually drinking it.

"Did she leave out the part that it has killed some of them and we aren't certain it won't kill more?" Turin questioned with less gusto than he usually would, even he could see the toll that the green had taken on the former assassin.

"Doesn't surprise me." Dutch stated sadly, knowing full well how the Lady's plans can go. "She can be brutal."

"I think we can all agree on that." Aneela spoke quietly, her own demons from the green creeping up on her.

The room fell silent, only interrupted for a moment when Turin excused himself to go back to the main ship, allowing them to leave the dock and start on their journey towards their friends. The four of them sat around the table with various levels of Hokk as they relished in the silence.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Johnny asked, breaking the silence as he ran his eyes over his best friend, it wasn't the cuts or the exhaustion that concerned him, he had seen her much worse before, but the look of defeat in her eyes, the Lady had appeared to have come within moments of breaking her fully.

"Lucy gave me the all clear." Dutch responded quietly, diverting her eyes into the liquid in her glass.

"Is that right Luce?" Johnny directed his question towards the ship instead.

"Dutch will live but I did not give her the all clear, she has a number of injuries, is malnourished and suffering from exhaustion as well as a slight fever and headache, which could be related to her other symptoms or could be the sign of something else. I have given her a number of things to help her heal faster, however I have not cleared her yet." The ships voice echoed throughout the room, the slightest hint of concern to the words that should be impossible for an AI but there wasn't another AI quite like theirs.

"Real okay." Johnny chastised with a smirk, knowing full well that Lucy would always give him the honest truth and would have alerted them had she believed that something was actually wrong.

"What did she do to you in there?" Aneela asked almost timidly, as if she was terrified to know and having suffered at the Lady's hand herself more than anyone else in the room, she had every reason to be.

"She tried to break me." Dutch answered simply, she knew she meant well but she was far from ready to go over that again.

"What did she want?" Aneela tried a different angle, worried about what the Lady might have gotten out of her.

"I'm not sure wanted anything except payback, she was furious that we trapped her in and so she tried to take it all out on me." Dutch responded after a few moments, running a finger along a large bruise on her arm as if she was trying to determine how exactly she received it.

"You should get some rest." D'avin spoke up, putting an end to the conversation with a stern glance at Aneela and a gentle hand on Dutch's shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr: Adangerousbond

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Tumblr: Adangerousbond


End file.
